Wall Street rises as earnings take focus from geopolitics
| Reuters

NEW YORK U.S. stocks rose on Monday after the S&P 500 closed the previous session at a two-month low, in a broad rally lead by recently beaten-down bank and tech shares.Market focus shifted from geopolitical tension to earnings, with several Dow components, including Goldman Sachs, General Electric and Johnson & Johnson, scheduled to release results later this week.S&P 500 component Netflix (NFLX.O), due to report results after the bell, was up 2.6 percent at $146.68."We could exit this earnings season with double-digit growth, and that’s the only data we should care about," said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at Wunderlich Securities in New York.On Friday, a U.S. market holiday but not a government holiday, data showed U.S. retail sales fell for a second straight month in March and consumer prices dropped for the first time in just over a year, pointing to a loss of economic growth momentum in the first quarter.

In later afternoon trading on Monday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 169.82 points, or 0.83 percent, to 20,623.07, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 18.74 points, or 0.80 percent, to 2,347.69 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added 47.04 points, or 0.81 percent, to 5,852.19.The technology sector of the S&P 500 .SPRLCT was on track to close up for the first time in 11 sessions. Financials could end up for the second time in the same period.Profits of S&P 500 companies are estimated to have risen 10.4 percent in the latest quarter, the first double-digit percentage growth since the third quarter of 2014, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Despite the refocus on earnings, the market could still be rattled by geo-political sabre-rattling.U.S. Vice President Mike Pence put North Korea on notice on Monday, warning that recent U.S. military strikes in Syria and Afghanistan showed the resolve of President Donald Trump should not be tested.

Amazon (AMZN.O) was the largest points gainer on the S&P 500, up 1.9 percent to $901.48 after Credit Suisse raised its price target to $1,050 from $900. Credit Suisse also raised its price target on Boeing (BA.N), sending the aircraft maker's shares up 1.8 percent to $178.77.Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 2.39-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.99-to-1 ratio favored advancers.The S&P 500 posted 12 new 52-week highs and 1 new low; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 28 new highs and 46 new lows. (Reporting by Rodrigo Campos, additional reporting by Yashaswini Swamynathan in Bengaluru; Editing by Dan Grebler)

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